Goodbye World (Blu-ray) (2013)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Trailer-x 4 for other Eagle Entertainment releases
Rating
Year Of Production	2013
Running Time	100:38
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Denis Hennelly
Studio Distributor	Eagle Entertainment	Starring	Adrian Grenier Kerry Bishe Ben McKenzie Caroline Dhavernas Mark Webber Remy Nozik Gaby Hoffmann Scott Mescudi
Case	Standard Blu-ray
RPI	?	Music	Eric D. Johnson

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes, quite a few joints!
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     James and Lily Palmer (Adrian Grenier, Kerry Bishe) have forsaken city life, sold their company and moved with their young daughter Hannah to a self-sustaining farm in upstate California. They have invited Nick (Ben McKenzie), James’ former business partner and Lily’s ex-fiancé, and his wife Becky (Caroline Dhavernas) to the farm for the weekend to try to resolve old issues and old disputes. Then, without warning, the message “Goodbye World” appears on people’s smartphones all over the USA, the phones go dead, blackouts occur and utilities, such as electricity fail. Food riots erupt in cities, law and order breaks down and armed militias take over food stores. The Palmer’s farm becomes a haven and the four are soon joined by others: Benji (Mark Webber), a teacher and activist who had spent five years in gaol, Ariel (Remy Nozik), his latest hot female student fling, Laura (Gaby Hoffmann), a disgraced political aide who had been caught on tape having sex with a senator, and Lev (Scott Mescudi), a hacker and IT specialist.

     All eight had known each other since college, about eight years before, and their relationships still have unresolved romances and emotional baggage. Not knowing what is happening in the outside world, they must resolve their differences and work together to survive, hoard their supplies, decide what to share with other members of their community and their neighbours down the road, and be wary of a couple of National Guardsmen with guns who seem ready to abuse their power. And, just to throw an additional problem into the mix, it could be that one of them may be responsible for the cyber-attacks that crippled the nation.

     There seems to be an increasing fascination with apocalyptic stories at the moment and I have reviewed a number of such films on this site. Approaches to armageddon have ranged from the comic, It’s a Disaster, to the fatalistic and whimsical, 4.44 Last Day on Earth to the bleak, The Road and Aftermath. Goodbye World has a similar plot to Aftermath, in that a group of diverse people hold out in an isolated rural location against the crumbling and lawless outside world, but whereas Aftermath was very bleak and offered a pessimistic outlook for the survival of humanity, Goodbye World is more a drama about personal romances and relationships, with the collapse of civilization somewhere in the background. Where Aftermath featured a black nuclear winter, creeping radiation sickness, predators with guns in the night and not a single romantic moment, the people in Aftermath live in a sun drenched California and seem to spend their time drinking, smoking marijuana, getting high, and talking about the law and the American constitution. Its premise, in the end, is that good will will overcome evil and that most people will work together to solve their differences, and that happy families, and romance, will prevail.

     Not a lot actually happens in Goodbye World except a lot of talk and I have doubts if quoting the American Constitution and the law to a thug with a gun would achieve much of a result. But the acting is generally quite good and if you are interested in a less bleak view of the apocalypse than is presented in many films, and with a positive ending on personal, romantic and society levels, then Goodbye World may be the antidote to all the gloom.

Video

     Goodbye World is presented in the original 2.35:1 aspect ratio, in 1080p using the MPEG-4 AVC code.

     Unlike a number of apocalyptic films, Goodbye World does not employ manipulated colours. The result is a print with good detail and warm, natural yet glossy digital colours. Blacks and shadow detail are good, skin tones are natural and brightness and contrast consistent.

     Other than slight motion blur against trees, artefacts and marks are absent.

     There are no subtitles.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     Audio is an English DTS-HD MA 5.1.

     While not setting the world on fire, the audio is appropriate for the film. Dialogue was always clear, which is great as there is a lot of dialogue in the film. There is not a lot for the surrounds to do but they do provide music and some bird and animal sounds at night. Effects, such as the gunshot, were deep. The sub-woofer supported the music, especially the added pop songs.

     The original score by Eric D. Johnson was fine in a low key way. More noticeable, and louder, were some additional pop songs by various bands, including Moby.

     There are no lip synchronisation issues.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Start-up Trailers

     On start-up trailers for The Trials of Cate McCall (1:52), Battle for Skyark (1:39), Expecting (2:27) and The First Time (2:22) play. These trailers cannot be selected from the menu.

     There are no other extras.

     The US Region A Blu-ray has only lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 audio but adds an audio commentary by co-writer / director Denis Hennelly, co-writer Sarah Adina Smith and producer Matthew G. Zamias, which is said to be “breezy”, and a Q&A with the director at the L.A. Film Festival (7.26). There is not currently a Region B UK version listed on Amazon.com.

     If you just want to film with loss-less audio, chose our Region B, otherwise the extras win I think.

     Goodbye World is take on the apocalypse that is far less bleak than is presented in a lot of films, with a positive ending on personal, romantic and society levels. Not exactly a feel good apocalypse, but close. If you are going to live out the end of the world there are far worse ways than drinking, smoking marijuana and getting high in sun drenched North California.

     The video and audio are fine. We miss out on the extras available in the US, but gain a loss-less audio.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall